I have a Dell Inspiron 4000, 900 Mhz Pentium III, 192 MB RAM, 10.1 GB disk running Lubuntu 12.04. When I start the computer, and I check the display resolution, Monitor Settings claims that the max resolution is 1024x768. I then connected another monitor I had lying around, rebooted, and now the laptop monitor looks normal,and monitor settings claims that 1280x1024 is the max resolution (it is) and the other monitor doesn't turn on. (black screen) The external monitor is not broken.

Is there a way to, without the external monitor, force the laptop monitor resolution to 1280x1024?

(The following is another question) - How can you run commands automatically at startup? Specifically, xinput 18 118 0. The first question is important, I can live with typing the second one at every boot.